Your journey to daily gratitude begins with your decision to find something good in every situation.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Day 872 of Giving Thanks

“Are you always positive?” came the question… and I looked her straight in the eye and said, “I am positive that I have an amazing God who loves me perfectly. So, yes, I am always positive…” In all honesty, that is what it’s all about. As I think about my life, what it is like now, compared to how it was, I am completely blown away.

There were many times when friends would have to pull me out of the “woe is me” mode; the words that came out of my mouth were not very edifying personally or helpful to those around me. Yes, I smiled, joked around and appeared to be very positive – yet I was beating myself up completely on the inside. I see that with so many today. It’s funny how we can see ourselves in others, especially when we are changed… for me the word transformed, hits home. It is maturity, along with dependence.

“Yet every advantage that I had gained I considered lost for Christ’s sake. Yes, and I look upon everything as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For his sake I did in actual fact suffer the loss of everything, but I considered it useless rubbish compared with being able to win Christ. For now my place is in him, and I am not dependent upon any of the self-achieved righteousness of the Law. God has given me that genuine righteousness which comes from faith in Christ. How changed are my ambitions! Now I long to know Christ and the power shown by his resurrection: now I long to share his sufferings, even to die as he died, so that I may perhaps attain as he did, the resurrection from the dead.

“Yet, my brothers, I do not consider myself to have “arrived”, spiritually, nor do I consider myself already perfect. But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me. My brothers, I do not consider myself to have fully grasped it even now. But I do concentrate on this: I leave the past behind and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal—my reward the honour of being called by God in Christ.

My ambition is the true goal of the spiritually adult: make it yours

“All of us who are spiritually adult should set ourselves this sort of ambition, and if at present you cannot see this, yet you will find that this is the attitude which God is leading you to adopt. It is important that we go forward in the light of such truth as we have ourselves attained to.” ~ Philippians 3:7-15 (J.B. Phillips New Testament)

So, how did I change?
Truly, I allowed change to happen. I submitted to God’s promises, Word and believed that He created me for something other than self-condemnation. I am so grateful for having a God who loves me like that.

I continue to change by living in the moment. Living in the moment, requires us to not dwell in the past. Know that He holds all the answers, all our hope and what is to come. What has been is no longer, what will be belongs to Him.

Let my life be pleasing to You LORD, let me always pray, give thanks and seek to know You more deeply. Let me think differently, to live differently.

“[The Resurrection of Christ] Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4 (New International Version)

Yes, I am positive that I have an amazing God who loves me perfectly. So, yes, I am always positive…

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We are Wonderfully Made (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wonderfully-Made/130178720330362), living to encourage and Equip His People (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Equip-His-People-Ephesians-411-13/170487976325407) and completely committed to believing greatly Psalm 139 with purpose (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Psalm-139-with-purpose/183264461708034).